HYDERABAD: There has been a decline in the number of workers from the city emigrating to the Gulf countries for employment due to economic slowdown in the member-countries of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), triggered by weak oil prices, a data by the ministry of external affairs indicate. The period from 2008-2017 has shown a huge decline in the number of people opting for work in the Gulf countries.
In 2008, according to MEA data, 14,809 emigrants went to Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries -- 17 GCC nations, which need emigration clearance for working abroad but in 2017 only 4,147 opted for the same. This was after it peaked in 2013 when the Gulf region, riding on an economic boom, attracted 33,331 migrants from Hyderabad. In 2018, only 490 Hyderabadis have gone out of the country for work.
A person needs an ECR verification if he has not passed Matriculation or Class X. They need special safeguards like valid work permit from their employer in the country where they want to go, and which is to be ensured by the Protectorate of Emigrants (PoE) in India.
The decline in the number of emigrating workers is restricted not just to Hyderabad or Telangana but to the whole of India. Official data shows that 3.91 lakh Indians migrated to Gulf for work legally in 2017, compared to 5.2 lakh in 2016. The number in 2015 was much higher at 7.8 lakh.
Explaining the reasons for finding jobs outside India, Neha Wadhawan, in her research paper ‘India Labour Migration Update 2018,’ said, “With the national unemployment rate of 3.4 pc in 2017–18, the opportunities to find formal employment with decent wages and job security are limited. In such a scenario, emigration for work with a formal contract and better wages are major motivation to leave the shores.”
But what happens when, apart from the country’s slow unemployment rate, GCC’s sluggish economy also limits their options?
Seeta Sharma, National (India) Project Coordinator at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in conversation with Express, said, “It is not just the sliding economy of the Gulf that is affecting the Indian emigrants. The nature of jobs in the Gulf countries is changing rapidly. The countries have introduced automation, nationalisation policies -- where citizens are encouraged to take up work in their own country -- and many other factors. All of these mean fewer chances of work for people from other countries,’’ he said.
Nagabharati, general manager of Telangana Overseas Manpower Company (TOMCOM), while admitting that there was indeed a decline in the number of workers going to the Gulf, however, said that “the decline could simply mean that more people from Hyderabad are passing Class X, thereby becoming eligible for non-verification process. Second, illegal agents could be taking them through improper channels. These agents usually take the workers on a visit visa instead of employment visa. Third, the residents could be registering into the ECR system from outside Hyderabad.”